Posts tagged sony,patent

And just like that, the Rockstar Consortium's lawsuit campaign against Android is over. The patent holding group (backed by Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony) has sold all of its commonly held patents to clearinghouse RPX for $900 million, or a fraction of the $4.5 billion the total ...

Remember the Rockstar Consortium? The group was formed by a handful of tech giants (including Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony) to buy a treasure trove of patents and promptly sue both Google and some Android partners, which promised one of the bigger legal battles in recent tech history. Well,...

Nintendo emerged victorious this week from a patent infringement lawsuit filed five years ago, after a US District Court dismissed the case outright. Alleged patent troll Wall Wireless sued Nintendo as well as Sony and Nokia in 2009, claiming the companies contravened its patent for the "method and...

What if a PlayStation Move controller didn't just move but could also transform (and roll out)? Our friends at Engadget have spotted a US patent filing from Sony for a modular PS Move-like controller that would do such a thing. The patent describes a controller that could attach to additional "bloc...

Typically, motion controllers aren't very good at adapting to different gameplay situations -- not unless you're willing to slap on a cheap plastic shell, anyway. Sony may improve that state of affairs in the future, though, as it recently filed for a patent on a modular PlayStation Move controlle...

Most large tech companies are either making wearable devices, or at least showing an interest in them. Sony's got a smartwatch, sure, but it's bored of such "in-the-box" thinking. Either that, or someone at Sony's been hitting the pipe, as the company's trying to patent what it calls a "SmartWig" ...

In today's sci-fi-inches-closer-to-reality news, Sony has filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for integrated camera sensors that can tag movies and photographs with your vital signs. The application, which can be read in full at the source below, describes...

A federal jury has just taken a bite out of patent licensing firm WiLAN's business plan, ruling that HTC, Sony, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson didn't infringe any of the four patents it sued them over. The latter two companies fended off three wireless base station claims, while Sony and HTC defended...

The patent application from Sony that popped up at the US Patent and Trademark Office this morning isn't quite the DualShock 4 that we've become acquainted with this year. While it contains many descriptors that apply to the controller Sony introduced alongside its PlayStation 4, it's also got a f...

In the annals of "clever patents that may never amount to anything," we now have an entry from Sony: a method of sensing touch strength with sound. Since capacitive touchscreens can't detect pressure on their own, a second film is needed that can add weight and cost. Sony's freshly granted patent ...

A patent describing a "method for validating legitimate media products" attributed to Sony Computer Entertainment America surfaced earlier this week. Originally filed in August 2011, the patent elaborates on a process by a which a piece of media could be detected as legitimate (not pirated) by comp...

Patents, we love 'em. When else do we get to peek directly into the idea-pantry of big companies like Sony. On the shelf today is this application for an "Input device, system and method," which as mundane as that sounds, actually appears quite the contrary. The flat, tablet-like illustration is d...

We reported that Sony was going "Red hunting" with it's new F-series pro camcorders, but it looks like Red has flipped that scenario. It's suing Sony for allegedly violating two of its patents -- asking for an injunction to stop sales plus an award for damages, and even that that the F5, F55 and F...

Sony filed a patent for a Vita that includes HDMI and USB ports. The patent, spotted by Patent Bolt, was filed on February 7 in the US and includes a detailed run-down of the hardware, including the above photo of a Vita with HDMI and USB connection slots (25 and 24, respectively). Update: This con...

Sony recently filed a patent that describes a method for determining the location of a PS Move-like controller through a sound capturing device. The patent describes the two-dimensional light-tracking that the current Move device uses in conjunction with sounds emitted from the controller, which wo...

A redesigned PlayStation Move? Sony's taken a stab at it before -- but this time around, it's imagining a controller with ultrasonic location analysis and Wiimote-like IR tracking. A new patent application details a "method for determining location of a controller," which proposes tracking control...

If you think Sony's DualShock and Move controllers are two halves of a well-rounded gaming experience, you might be pleased to know that the firm has dreamt up a hybrid. A patent application filed last year by Kaz and Co. for a "Hybrid Separable Motion Controller" has just surfaced, and it describ...

There's a certain disconnected feeling that comes with using a touchscreen, and Sony isn't content with vibration being the sole standard for haptic feedback. The company has filed a bunch of patent applications for a stylus which instead uses artificially generated friction to make it harder or e...

A patent Sony filed in May 2012 was recently uncovered, indicating the company has interest in knowing exactly who the users of its products are. The patent, titled "Process and Apparatus for Automatically Identifying User of Consumer Electronics," describes the inclusion of fingerprint sensors tha...

We all know adverts are a necessary evil, which is why different companies are trying to make them more personalized, more engaging or just plain get rid of them. In a recently granted patent, Sony outlines its ideas for next-gen advertising on network-connected devices -- essentially to make it m...